Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: access()
Message-ID: <1989Feb9.210931.19268@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <LFK.89Feb8170836@mbio.med.upenn.edu> <9634@smoke.BRL.MIL>
Date: Thu, 9 Feb 89 21:09:31 GMT

In article <LFK.89Feb8170836@mbio.med.upenn.edu> lfk@mbio.med.upenn.edu (Lee Kolakowski) writes:
>...For example, in RCS there are statements like
>	access("./RCS/", 000)

Well, the immediate problem comes from the interpretation of the null
component at the end of the pathname, something that was never very well
nailed down in the old days.  ("Nailed down" in this context means in the
documentation, not the code.)  The quick fix is to remove the trailing
slash or add a '.' after it.

There is also a deeper problem in that RCS, like a good many other pieces
of code, probably should not be using access() at all, since it *probably*
wants to check against the effective uid/gid, not the real ones.
-- 
Allegedly heard aboard Mir: "A |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
toast to comrade Van Allen!!"  | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu